What does tough mean?
Definitions for tough
tʌftough
Here are all the possible meanings and translations of the word tough.
Princeton's WordNet
street fighter, toughnoun
someone who learned to fight in the streets rather than being formally trained in the sport of boxing
hood, hoodlum, goon, punk, thug, tough, toughie, strong-armernoun
an aggressive and violent young criminal
bully, tough, hooligan, ruffian, roughneck, rowdy, yob, yobo, yobboadjective
a cruel and brutal fellow
toughadjective
not given to gentleness or sentimentality
"a tough character"
rugged, toughadjective
very difficult; severely testing stamina or resolution
"a rugged competitive examination"; "the rugged conditions of frontier life"; "the competition was tough"; "it's a tough life"; "it was a tough job"
tough, toughenedadjective
physically toughened
"the tough bottoms of his feet"
sturdy, toughadjective
substantially made or constructed
"sturdy steel shelves"; "sturdy canvas"; "a tough all-weather fabric"; "some plastics are as tough as metal"
ruffianly, toughadjective
violent and lawless
"the more ruffianly element"; "tough street gangs"
bad, toughadjective
feeling physical discomfort or pain (`tough' is occasionally used colloquially for `bad')
"my throat feels bad"; "she felt bad all over"; "he was feeling tough after a restless night"
toughadjective
resistant to cutting or chewing
hard, toughadjective
unfortunate or hard to bear
"had hard luck"; "a tough break"
baffling, elusive, knotty, problematic, problematical, toughadjective
making great mental demands; hard to comprehend or solve or believe
"a baffling problem"; "I faced the knotty problem of what to have for breakfast"; "a problematic situation at home"
Wiktionary
toughnoun
A person who obtains things by force; a thug or bully.
They were doing fine until they encountered a bunch of toughs from the opposition.
toughverb
To endure.
toughverb
To toughen.
toughadjective
strong and resilient; sturdy
The tent, made of tough canvas, held up to many abuses.
toughadjective
difficult to cut or chew
To soften a tough cut of meat, the recipe suggested simmering it for hours.
toughadjective
rugged or physically hardy
Only a tough species will survive in the desert.
toughadjective
Stubborn.
He had a reputation as a tough negotiator.
toughadjective
harsh or severe
toughadjective
rowdy or rough.
A bunch of the tough boys from the wrong side of the tracks threatened him.
toughadjective
difficult or demanding
This is a tough crowd.
toughadjective
Undergoing plastic deformation before breaking.
Etymology: From toh, from tanhuz.
Samuel Johnson's Dictionary
TOUGHadjective
Etymology: toh , Saxon.
Of bodies some are fragile, and some are tough, and not fragile. Francis Bacon, Nat. Hist.
The bow he drew,
And almost join’d the horns of the tough eugh. Dryden.Fate with nature’s law would strive,
To shew plain-dealing once an age may thrive;
And when so tough a frame she could not bend,
Exceeded her commission to befriend. Dryden.O sides you are too tough!
Will you yet hold? William Shakespeare.A body made of brass the crone demands
For her lov’d nursling, strung with nerves of wire,
Tough to the last, and with no toil to tire. Dryden.
Webster Dictionary
Tough
having the quality of flexibility without brittleness; yielding to force without breaking; capable of resisting great strain; as, the ligaments of animals are remarkably tough
Tough
not easily broken; able to endure hardship; firm; strong; as, tough sinews
Tough
not easily separated; viscous; clammy; tenacious; as, tough phlegm
Tough
stiff; rigid; not flexible; stubborn; as, a tough bow
Tough
severe; violent; as, a tough storm
Chambers 20th Century Dictionary
Tough
tuf, adj. not easily broken: firm: stiff, viscous, sticky: stubborn, hard to manage, trying: violent: tenacious: able to endure hardship.—n. a rough, a bully.—v.t. or v.i. Tough′en, to make or become tough.—adj. Tough′ish, rather tough.—adv. Tough′ly.—n. Tough′ness. [A.S. tóh; cog. with Ger. zähe.]
British National Corpus
Spoken Corpus Frequency
Rank popularity for the word 'tough' in Spoken Corpus Frequency: #3162
Written Corpus Frequency
Rank popularity for the word 'tough' in Written Corpus Frequency: #2971
Adjectives Frequency
Rank popularity for the word 'tough' in Adjectives Frequency: #328
Anagrams for tough »
ought
Numerology
Chaldean Numerology
The numerical value of tough in Chaldean Numerology is: 7
Pythagorean Numerology
The numerical value of tough in Pythagorean Numerology is: 8
Examples of tough in a Sentence
We spent two months in that area and found absolutely nothing. That brought mistrust from the industry, looking at something that is 500 days old is going to be tough.
My dad was tough as nails, just like the dogs are, so it's nice to know that he's still kind of out here with us.
You can't say activity is like it was before COVID. As long as the restaurants are shut, it's going to be tough for us.
Border Patrol told us it's the No. 1 most important miles to close. The tough terrain always left it off the government list, and that's what we focus on -- private land that is not in the program and take the toughest first.
How do we take Turkey's legitimate security concerns and enhance their security... at the same time, the SDF was the only organization at the time that was able to throw ISIS off the track and defeat them in the field in very, very tough fighting and we will not simply cast that organization aside.
Popularity rank by frequency of use
Translations for tough
From our Multilingual Translation Dictionary
- صارمArabic
- zähGerman
- τραχύς, σκληρόςGreek
- de mano dura, resistente, severoSpanish
- سفتPersian
- sitkeä, ankara, kovis, vaativa, kova, hankalaFinnish
- dur, difficileFrench
- righinIrish
- fulangach, righinn, tapaidhScottish Gaelic
- rágósHungarian
- duroItalian
- たいへん, 辛い, きついJapanese
- მკაცრი, გამძლე, ხულიგანი, უხეშიGeorgian
- lentaLatin
- taaiDutch
- vanskeligNorwegian
- ګران, سخت, کلکPashto, Pushto
- resistentePortuguese
- трудный, жёсткий, прочный, тяжёлый, тяжкийRussian
- tuffSwedish
- sertTurkish
- 强硬Chinese
Get even more translations for tough »
Translation
Find a translation for the tough definition in other languages:
Select another language:
- - Select -
- 简体中文 (Chinese - Simplified)
- 繁體中文 (Chinese - Traditional)
- Español (Spanish)
- Esperanto (Esperanto)
- 日本語 (Japanese)
- Português (Portuguese)
- Deutsch (German)
- العربية (Arabic)
- Français (French)
- Русский (Russian)
- ಕನ್ನಡ (Kannada)
- 한국어 (Korean)
- עברית (Hebrew)
- Gaeilge (Irish)
- Українська (Ukrainian)
- اردو (Urdu)
- Magyar (Hungarian)
- मानक हिन्दी (Hindi)
- Indonesia (Indonesian)
- Italiano (Italian)
- தமிழ் (Tamil)
- Türkçe (Turkish)
- తెలుగు (Telugu)
- ภาษาไทย (Thai)
- Tiếng Việt (Vietnamese)
- Čeština (Czech)
- Polski (Polish)
- Bahasa Indonesia (Indonesian)
- Românește (Romanian)
- Nederlands (Dutch)
- Ελληνικά (Greek)
- Latinum (Latin)
- Svenska (Swedish)
- Dansk (Danish)
- Suomi (Finnish)
- فارسی (Persian)
- ייִדיש (Yiddish)
- հայերեն (Armenian)
- Norsk (Norwegian)
- English (English)
Word of the Day
Would you like us to send you a FREE new word definition delivered to your inbox daily?
Citation
Use the citation below to add this definition to your bibliography:
Style:MLAChicagoAPA
"tough." Definitions.net. STANDS4 LLC, 2023. Web. 8 Feb. 2023. <https://www.definitions.net/definition/tough>.
Discuss these tough definitions with the community:
Report Comment
We're doing our best to make sure our content is useful, accurate and safe.
If by any chance you spot an inappropriate comment while navigating through our website please use this form to let us know, and we'll take care of it shortly.
Attachment
You need to be logged in to favorite.
Log In